perspective

it's been a few days and I have a few things to reflect on...

1. McDonald's serves over 9 million pounds of french fry's a DAY. That's 3.285 billion a year. If the average potato used to make Mc Fry's weighs .75 pounds then they use over 4.3 billion potatoes a year... Go Ronald.

2. Sometimes in life the best things are those that are unexpected and when the expected things exceed our expectations...

3. Sometimes life hits you when you least expect it, good or bad, that's life. Our reaction to it defines our character. Life is about perspective. Is your glass half empty, or half full? You have the ability, every day, to define your character. How you react to difficult times says a lot about who you are. It's easy to get wrapped up in anger, sorrow, grief, and fear. A person of strong character has faith. Faith is not knowing that things are good when they are going good, faith is about knowing and believing that things WILL get better when things go wrong. Having faith in that, arguably is the the most important determinant to your perspective. It's easy to be weak... I challenge you to be strong. Being strong is not easy, it's the most humbling and difficult thing to do, but I promise you this, the stronger you are, the better your life will be.

I challenge you to be strong... in mind, body, and spirit.

FAFF

Also known as Fast Accurate Friendly Fries...

Vacation is over and I'm back to McDonaldland reality... receiving this today was a NICE transition.

The new: Arch Frozen Fry Dispenser.

I know what you're thinking... you're kidding right? Wrong. Christmas in March folks and it came on the perfect day (I've been needing a little pick me up).

It's a beautiful piece of stainless steel. Keeps the fries completely frozen so that they are cooked to meet 100% perfect quality standards. Because the dispenser has a freezer unit which holds the fries it means we can fill it and leave it... which means, less frantic trips running to the freezer because Johnny forgot to check the hopper. It also helps reduce waste from fries that don't meet the quality standard due to thawing. Have I mentioned it's just magic? And beautiful...

Ski Jackets in Mexico?

Mom and I woke up at 5 am to stormy skies and raging seas today. We laid around wondering what the dive situation was going to be until 7 when breakfast opened up. The head port master had all the boats on lock down until the weather cleared. Since we didn't get to dive we spent the morning roaming around town looking at all the junk for sale and avoiding all the random street men screaming the worlds worst pick-up lines at me. My favorite of the day was "hola. chica bonita. a la derecha (i was walking on the right side of my mom), chica, chica, hola, QUE BONITA!.... (switches to english as mom and I keep on walking), excuse me miss, you dropped something... oh it was my number!" we kept walking and then got yelled at for being rude americans because I failed to acknowledge his pathetic attempt at getting my attention. Pardon me, but you sir, were interrupting my morning stroll! We came back, had a quick lunch, and then headed to a local spa to get a massage and facial. Boy was that fantastic! A bit of pampering to end the trip! My massage lady was incredible, she practically beat the shit out of my back, and I am quite certain I'll be bruising tomorrow from it, but it was worth it. She found knots all over, deep ones, and used her elbows, knuckles, knees, and who knows what else to get them out. I like strong massages, but this one was ROUGH. I'll be sore tomorrow, but will feel great in a few days. After the spa we walked back into town for one more looksee then headed back for Fiesta night. The big party night turned out to be a big dud because of the weather. There was a big group in from Minnesota and most of them were wearing ski jackets, they were so cold. Who woulda thought??! come to mexico and wear ski jackets over spring break. I must say, I do feel a bit robbed out of my sunshine, but the bonding with my mama and relaxing was well worth the trip. I feel very refreshed having had a few days off from my very busy and hectic lifestyle. I'm recharged and ready to head home and barrel back into everything. I'm very lucky to have such a good mamma who will go travel the world with me, she is such a good mamma and a great friend! Thanks to all for your love and support, I feel very blessed to have such a wonderful family and friends in my life. Smile... life is beautiful :)

Raining on Sunday

Here is a picture of Mom and I from last night, having some margaritas and having a great time!

This morning we were early again. Ate breakfast and got moved off the slow boat to china and onto a faster boat. Good thing as the dive site was an hour and 15 minutes out to our first dive sight. The currents are VERY strong here, which they say is why the water is so cold. When I jumped in the water, it was so cold,it literally took my breath away. Mom and I both had contemplated aborting the dive immediately, but we stuck it out since it was such an effort to get to the dive sight. We dove Columbia reef, which turned out to be a great dive. We warmed up a bit while we were down under. Saw several turtles, one that was eating some sponges. It let mom and I watch up close and personal! It was so cool, I was literally less than 6 inches away watching this GIANT turtle eating huge chunks off of a soft coral sponge. We stayed and watched for about 5 minutes. We also saw a giant eagle ray, a huge green morray eel,lobster, crab, shark, etc. etc. We were down for about an hour before we surfaced. It was warmer up top today because we were in a more sheltered type boat versus the catamaran we were on yesterday. We motored back almost all the way to the resort during which the divemasters and boat crew were arguing. Our divemaster

Jesus was great, he wanted to give us a full ride and didn't care that it was Sunday and all the others just wanted to get back so they could go have their Cervesas. The boat captain got even and dropped up at the worst dive site possible. There was NOTHING to see, just a bunch of sand and a few spots of coral. Again, it was breat taking to jump into the water. I didn't warm up until 9 minutes in and then it was only because we had to kick so hard to offset the current. Mom and I were both ready to surface at 30 minutes. You know there is something wrong when mom is ready to call it a dive. We were both freezin our arshes off!!!!! Finally, at 55 minutes, I couldn't get my teeth to stop chattering so I started up. Everyone else followed. Boy was I flat out EXHAUSTED

after that dive. 55 minutes of HARD swimming back against the current. We had planned to come back to the resort and do a shore dive before going to lunch But, the conditions had deteriorated so badly that we couldn't enter the water. Well, we could have jumped off the dive dock, but there was no way in hell that mom could have climbed up the stairs with the waves crashing so violently. So, instead, we rinsed and stowed our gear, took long hot showers, went to lunch and talked to the other couple (our dive buddies) for awhile. We all agreed that was the worst dive we've ever been on and a waste of 55 minutes of our lives and not to mention several degrees of core body temperature! After lunch mom and I snuggled up in my bed and watched a movie. Thank goodness I brought some with

us as the hotel has absolutely NOTHING to do. No TV, no nothing. normally that would be great, I'd lay out and work on my suntan, but with the rain and storming weather that wasn't an option. We just finished dinner. I've been very careful to read over all the menu items so mom and I don't eat anything with nuts in it. Tonight we both ordered the beef kabobs served over cous-cous and

carrots. The dining room was dark and I dove into my rice, not noting the massive amounts of diced walnuts and raisins cooked in the rice. Thankfully I noticed just as mom was going to eat her first bite. She got a clean plate and didn't eat any of the nuts. I was not so fortunate and quickly ate the rest of my dinner and rushed to the room to down some benedryl. Not the best end to the day, but at least I will sleep well tonight, and thank goodness mom didn't them as her reactions are much worse than mine and she forgot her Epi-pin.

We will make 2 dives tomorrow, weather permitting. It is cold, windy, and rainy here. I've wore my sweatsuit the entire time. I couldn't get warm this afternoon so I was huddled under the blankets.

Just another day in Paradise

I was told to write good stuff... "Mama got skinny.... not that my ass needs a lift, that was bad." SOOOO, here is the recap for today plus a photo or two for your viewing pleasure!

Today was a bit of a whirlwind, mom and I awoke and went down and enjoyed breakfast and a cup of coffee while staring at the ocean, I must say this is a magical way to start your day. We came back suited up and headed to the dive boat. We're diving on the Reef Cat and we're both too tired to remember the dive masters name, whoops. It was a LONG morning. An hour boat ride out to the first dive site. Water temp was 78, now you may think that sounds warm, but in water, thats friggin cold. I like to froze my little butt cheeks off shivering half to death. We saw some good fish, a few HUGE red and green parrot fish, these things were beautiful and I couldn't believe their size. We saw a giant spotted eagle ray, those things are really neat. It was a drift dive and because I'm so light the current grabs me and shoots me off like a cannon. I kept flying past the dive master then turning around and kicking like I've never kicked before to catch back up to the group. I'd find a spot to rest and look at the coral, let everyone get far ahead of me, then BAM there I'd go again. I've got to figure out a better way to do the drift dives, my legs are getting tired. The dive master couldn't believe it, he said he'd never seen someone get swept away as quick as I did. We spent an hour topside, freezing, huddling together for warmth, and then we took another plunge. The second dive wasn't as good as the first. Mostly because my ears weren't de-pressurizing. I have really small sinus' and when I dive its difficult for my ears to equalize, sometimes they just won't and I have to end the dive. I take 2 24hour sudafed and that helps, I've also got these little ear buds my sweet mama finally convinced me to try, I'll painfully admit that yes, she was right (I can hear her saying I told you so) and I won't dive without them. About 30 minutes in I went up to try and clear them, came back down, the group was below me, my ears were screaming, so I went up a bit more to try and calm them down, when I looked down, sure enough the current had taken me FAR AWAY again. I fought like hell for five minutes to swim back against the current to the group, but then said forget it, surfaced and let the boat come fetch me. I'm on vacation and thats just too much work. We didn't get back for lunch until 1:30, quickly shoveled in some food, changed swimsuits and boarded the Scuba Cat II for our afternoon wreck dives. If you've never been wreck diving it is truly something else. Without a doubt wrecks are my favorite dives. There is something just so cool about swimming inside a sunken shift. Drifting through all the rooms, seeing all the fish that hide out. Really Really cool! This wreck was an old US minesweeper that was built in the 30's. Sometime ago the US sold it to Mexico who used it and then sank it in the early 2000's. I thought it was pretty cool to go through that ship because it's the kind of ship my grandpa Rod was on in the Korean war when he was on a minesweeper. Who knows, it could have been that very ship! We got to go inside a LOT of rooms in the ship. You kinda feel like you are living in a discovery channel TV show when you're in a wreck seeing all the old stuff. After the wreck dive we washed out our gear, showered, and headed to dinner. I ordered the shrimp and mom had the pasta. Neither were as good as last night's. I ate one shrimp and decided I'd switch to bread and chocolate ice cream, they were hard, chewey and VERY fishy. Let's hope that one shrimp doesn't do me in for the rest of the trip. The chocolate ice cream is quite good, as are the margaritas which mom and I indulged in.

All in all it was a good, but very long and rushed, day. Mom and I are excited to dive in the morning and then spend the afternoon laying in our hammocks.

on the coast of somewhere beautiful...

~ Mom and I have arrived safe and sound in Cozumel. The flights went OK, had a pair of young brothers sitting behind me, the youngest kept kicking my chair. I turned around to yell at him after it woke me up for the 2454th time, but saw that he was pleasantly sleeping, feet stretched out against the back of my chair, he looked so peaceful and cute I didn't have the heart to wake him up. We had a 3 hour layover in Houston. I pulled some rows of seats together and we stretched out and slept for another hour or so, then we ventured out for breakfast. Stay away from Ruby's Diner if you're ever in Houston airport... just NASTY. It's really hard to screw up eggs, but they did! The second flight mom and I had the row to ourselves, I stretched out and slept the who way - I didnt even stir for takeoff or landing! We are rather tired, so we're heading to bed early tonight. The rooms weren't ready when we got here, so we layed around in a hammock rocking back and forth, talking, and relaxing until the room was done. This afternoon we read, spent more time in the hammock, sun bathed, and then walked into town to check out some shops. Several strange men yelled "ay chica bonita" and were practically chasing us down the street, that was exciting! I tried to talk mom into a pair of linen black pants, but we couldn't get past the saggy butt problem... she needed a big "lift" in those pants. For dinner we treated ourselves to a GRANDE margarita. Mom had the Penne alla vodka, it was good, except it was missing the vodka tomato cream sauce. We still can't figure out where that was in the dish? I had a NY steak and was pleasantly surprised at the tastiness of it. We must have been famished because both devoured our meals. Finally, we topped it off with a big bowl of chocolate ice cream. Now, for those of you that know me, you KNOW I happen to LOVE chocolate ice cream. What a great end to a start of a wonderful vacation. I am very excited to be having a little mother daughter bonding time with my mamma. It is nice to be away from school and work and to just RELAX! It has been a long Quarter and I am going to enjoy these few days off. Neither of us can keep our eyes open any longer (yes it is only 7 back home) so we are hitting the sack. I bet mom wakes up at 4 am bright eyed and ready for the day... you know me, I'll hibernate for the next 11 hours and still need more sleep.

They don't call me panda for nothing!

I took some pictures of the resort which I'll work on posting tomorrow, just too tired tonight!

Silent Reflection

... a few select writings ....

I sat, sat in silence, for only that would do.

In serenity of thought, sparked vivid notion of you.

Gaze, gaze up at the stars,

eyes piercing the cold steel,

like a mouse behind these bars,

waiting, wanting for thou,

I long to feel.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

How It Goes

Long hours and longer minutes.

Never ending and never coming soon enough.

Lingering moments and time suspended.

Always anxious and ever impatient.

Long weeks and longer days.

It’s all here and always happening.

Until it’s almost gone.

Hours fly by and minutes hardly exist.

Soon ending and ending too soon.

Moments past and time no longer.

Mere weeks and precious days.

Here will soon be there and always happening will be always happened.

It’ll pass you by.

That’s how it goes.

Poop.

.... to the lady who has decided to feed the birds a loaf of bread every morning.... I really do not like you.

And neither does my vehicle... which was silver... and is now polka dotted white.

love,

Tara

P.S. I've noticed you did this three times this week, lets not make it a habit.

A day in the life of a fry girl...

In my line of work you experience all sorts of "interesting" people... Friday I happened to meet more than my fair share. Here is the recap of my day.

10 am: lady parks her car in drive thru for 10 minutes because I would not give her whipped cream for free. Had to call security, who then had to call another group of security officers, who then had to start calling the police in order for her to finally move her vehicle. now you may ask, WHY didn't you just give her the free whipped cream... Because she didn't pay for it! And I'm in the business of making money, not just giving everyone anything and everything they want because it's easier. One day its whipped cream, the next its dessert, then a whole mean... and on and on.

11 am: customer comes in and orders 7 meals at front counter, at the same time a car in drive thru orders 9 meals, and another car in drive thru orders 5 meals. the kitchen is bombarded and is catching up as quickly as possible. to expedite the process orders after the gentleman at front counter are given out. this guys proceeds to freak out screaming at the top of his lungs that nobody should receive their food before he gets all of his. how dare we do this to him! he finally gets ugly enough that I have to again call security and have him escorted out. All in all, the guy waited a grand total of 5 minutes for all 7 of his meals. yet he left ranting and raving, cursing and screaming, about his 45 minute wait. exaggerate much?

12:30 pm: a lady at front counter returns her french fries for having "white matter" on them.... it was a clump of salt. when the manager explained to her what it was she starting screaming that there is fur all over her food. again, she is told it is salt. new fries are given to her to calm her down. she returns to her table, sits down, eats 95% of her food, then decides to come back up, throw her tray across the counter and demand a refund... she too was escorted out by security, screaming bloody murder because she doesn't know what salt looks like.

1 pm: a car pulls into the drive thru and tries to "split" an order. the lady is told that it is against our policy to split orders as this slows up the drive thru. she says ok and finishes placing her ONE order. Lady pulls up the the cash window and then tells the cashier to split her order, he informs her he cannot do this as it is against store policy. She pulls forward (without paying) to yell at me for refusing her request. I tell her there is nothing I can do and she can pay for her one order or come inside. She floors it and goes screeching out of the drive thru (I've assumed she just left). A minute later someone comes to front counter yelling "I'm over here I'm over here" I send the FC person to take care of her, and she starts taking her order. We then realize it is the passenger from the car in drive thru so I turn around to tell the kitchen not to make the food, we already have it. I guess this really made the lady mad because then she starts screaming at me how dare I turn my back on her (I thought I was expediting the process b/c her food was already ready?)... just as this is going on, BAM the driver of the car comes RUNNING into the restaurant screaming bloody murder and proceeds to tell me that "she is going to jump over the counter and stab me in the heart with a knife" because I wouldn't let her split her order. I immediately tell her to leave or I will have her arrested.

What a day...

Moral of the story: it's tax refund season and the LOONIES are out in FULL force. Watch out!

for you...

All my life I've wondered what it meant to have unconditional love... i found it, and it's the love I have for YOU. It means I will love you, no matter what. I'm scared... it takes so much of yourself to love someone more than you love yourself, more than your biggest passion, more than all the desires in the word. It can hurt, sometimes more than it should... but deep down in my heart of hearts, I know its the right thing to go for, even though I may not stand a chance. Even though in the end I may stand, lost, empty, and holding my heart broken into a million little pieces in my hands.. The feeling of giving my whole heart, yea it's pretty scary... but I do it anyways. Because if I don't risk it all, then I risk never knowing it at all.

crash into me...

It never fails, when something happens that you least expect, you think surely, it CAN'T happen again, right? WRONG!

You've seen the pictures of Friday's drive thru disaster from last week. This week on Wednesday it happened again! Only this time, a lady decided to drive her UHAUL through the drive thru, problem is, its just a bit too tall to fit... so what happens, CRASH there goes a chunk of my roof. As if her crashing into the roof wasn't enough, she then is literally such a bad driver that she cannot back out, and proceeds to continue to drive through. Her son gets out of the truck to help navigate her out and then she RUNS OVER his foot. Finally she makes it out of the drive thru, with a lovely dent across the whole top of the truck from where it was hitting the roof.

Now I know what you're thinking, same thing I was... You've GOT to be KIDDING me! NOPE! You know I've been in a hurry before, frankly, I'm in a hurry a lot, but I'm pretty sure no matter how big of a rush I was in I'd be smart enough realize "this probably isn't a good idea."

So the brilliant lady crashes into the building and when I go outside to take pictures and get all her insurance information she tells me "can we hurry this up because I've got to turn the truck in." I said lady you just ran into my building, this is going to take a while, you might want to park and come inside! I asked for her insurance, rental agreement, and drivers license... what do you know! She had NO INSURANCE and even worse NO DRIVERS LICENSE. I had no choice but to call the police to have a report filled out. When I spoke with the dispatcher she couldn't believe it, she actually started laughing when I told her my problem, she said "what do you mean she drove her uhaul into your building..." I said mam I meant exactly what I said, she drove her uhaul into my building, doesn't have insurance, or a drivers license! The dispatcher told me she'd get me a uniform ASAP. I'm thinking to myself, alright this is what my tax dollars go towards, something useful! Right? WRONG! The cop comes in and looks over her information for 2 minutes and then tells me there is nothing he can do because it happened on private property and is a civil matter. That is absolutely crazy. The lady was driving without a license! Moreover, she had done this TWICE before and should have been arrested. Without even looking into her name, record, and other information he gives her a quick 2 minute lecture and lets her go. She blatantly lied to him when she said the truck wasn't hers... her name and ID number were the only ones listed on the rental agreement. Turns out Uhaul made a big mistake and allowed her "ID Card" number to be her drivers license number (when I spoke to their insurance rep later on, she couldn't believe that mistake). I just really want to know this... why in the world would he let her go KNOWING she was driving without a license. Thank goodness it was only my building and not a person she ran into!

What drives you?

... and I mean REALLY drives you, what lights a fire in your soul? What are you passionate about?

"So many people walk around with a meaningless life. They seem half-asleep, even when they're busy doing things they think are important. This is because they're chasing the wrong things. The way you get meaning into your life is to devote yourself to loving others, devote yourself to your community around you, and devote yourself to creating something that gives you purpose and meaning." -Morrie

It's called a Drive Thru

... not Drive Into .... this takes the meaning of "bad driver" to a whole new level...

HOW did she DO that?

Welcome to my life...

So I've been thinking about starting a blog for a while now, there are so many crazy and interesting things that I have the pleasure of experiencing in my life. How could I not share them all with you?

So here I am, this is my blog. I'm here to tell some stories. I'm here to give some inspiration. I'm here to spread some love. I'm here for me, but mostly I'm here for you. I don't know exactly how this works, but I'm sure I will figure it out along the way.